Erosion
by S.P.L.I.S.E
Summary: To hunt a mystery; a battle between two of the three most elusive minds on the Nemesis. Rated M for 'eventual' interfacing.
1. Chapter 1: The Birth of a Mystery

**Chapter** **Summary:** After so many years the Eradicons have found amusment in searching for mysterious missing cargo, and Megatron does not like their distraction.

**Review: **Hit me with everything you got. I have no bloody clue how to be a writer.

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**Chapter One**

**The Birth of a Mystery**

Enthusiasm flitted in the air of the dark Nemesis, excited whispers that constantly rose and then hushed themselves out as if forbidden. The Lord of Decepticons listened, but never could catch onto what the Eradicon ranks were speaking of. It would not be a problem if whatever they were so intimate about was not distracting from their daily duties and shifts. There had been report of several drones disappearing into the inner mechanisms of the Nemesis without approval or any indication they would be doing maintenance there, they would show again much later a bit sullen. They were properly scolded by their peers, but it wasn't long before the same drone and/or others would go missing into the depths of the Nemesis over and over again. It came to the point he was getting annoyed with their distraction and there was a simple way to find out what the whispering ruckus was all about.

"Director Soundwave." Their Lord's thudding footsteps casually came to and rested behind the intelligence officer deep in his work; the spy took merely a moment to retract himself from the console to give his full appropriate attention to his master and lightly bowed his head.

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The Eradicon bunks were buzzing with lazy activity as only the off-duty ones were there, and they hardly paid attention to the small dispatched flier that flew quietly far over their heads. It was not usual that Laserbeak flew in to check on this section of the ship, but she never stayed long so they didn't mind or feel like their privacy was being intruded upon by a spy. Soundwave didn't much care for peeking in on the drones, they had an entirely different culture brewing amongst themselves and much of that was far too openly intimate for his visor to handle. Laserbeak made sure not to look too directly at what they were doing, and settled in an open spot in a shelf to listen to their chatter for any signs of the so-called "distraction" their Lord was after.

"That better not be someone in the vent." A booming voice broke out above the chatter; it had come from a Sergeant who stood up abruptly to face the vent above the table he had been sitting at with other Alphas conversing amongst themselves. Laserbeak immediately keened in as she raised her beak lightly in the direction of the event. Dust was puffing out of the air vent and a cough through what was unmistakably Cybertronian breathing ducts came through the metal grating. The Sergeant shoved one of his fellow officers over as he stood up in the booth to reach the vent, in one quick jerk the metal grating was removed and the Vehicon inside shielded his faceplate as the light hit him in the visor.

"Get out of there! What's your Identification?" The Sergeant grabbed the shielding arm of the Vehicon and yanked him to the floor, then pulled him up by the chassis cuff till he was on the tip of his front pedes. The vent creeper continued to cough as he sputtered his name out, "Sir, T-Trenton, uh, T53-NT04. Sir."

"I have in the morning reports that T53-NT04 is supposed to be on mining level three guard duty! You private have left the Minors defenseless by one!" He was going to continue his even louder berating rant but another officer chipped in that this was not the first time 'Trenton' had been found shirking his duties to search the Nemesis. The Sergeant, still holding the private by the cuff, pulled his head back and looked to their onlookers to address them in an impossibly even louder voice, "It seems a slap on the wrist isn't enough punishment for you is it? From now on, anyone caught looking for this so called 'Starscream's treasure' and you will be put in the gulag for an entire cycle!" Then he leered the private he held in the visor, "Starting with this one!"

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'Starscream's Treasure?' Soundwave quirked his head slightly in amusement, it sounded as ridiculous as it was intriguing. Laserbeak continued feeding the audio she had collected in the bunks through his veins and her master's mood narrowed to a dangerous suspicion.

_-"Starscream's secret black cargo…"_

_-"Why didn't anyone worry about it, especially after it went missing?"_

_-"I heard it holds plans to destroy Megatron!"_

_-"-I bet it is weapons of mass destruction he's keeping for himself till he's in charge -so he can take all the credit for defeating the Autobots with them."_

_-"It could be the project of an alternative to energon. You know he used to be a scientist!"_

_-"What if it's something really valuable though, like a pure mineral of some sort? A secret stash of red energon or something?"_

_-"Steve said he heard noises coming from inside it!"_

He had heard enough and Laserbeak quit her feed. Ah yes, the mystery of Starscream's black cargo. Five Solar Cycles before, while Megatron was still on his crusade of gathering an army, Starscream suddenly was wrought with a slew of bodily malfunctions. There being no doctor on board at the time, he took a small shuttle through the space bridge leaving Soundwave in charge. The commander returned an Orn later inside an escape pod, his body in shutdown mode looking even worse for wear, but what was interesting is that he clung tightly to a large black, heavily locked chest. Everything and everyone was removed from the pod and taken care of, the black chest left alone. When the Commander woke up there was static on all video feed for thirty-seven minutes, and the black chest was gone. Soundwave had inquired about the chest, but Starscream for once, gave him the silent treatment back.

After some time, the chest was seemingly forgotten as life went on very normal. Soundwave had even forgotten to relay this entire event to Megatron after his return and the intelligence officer became still with that realization. How would their lord take this belated news?

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"And why am I only hearing of this now?" The tone was annoyed, but not dangerous. The spy hesitated and then slumped in embarrassment as the words 'Cargo forgotten over time' displayed on his visor. The Lord of the Decepticons seemed to be taking this lightly and rolled his eyes as he turned away, a relief to the intelligence officer.

"If it were a weapon to destroy me he would have used it by now," Then his sharp teeth gleamed as he grinned slightly and his voice took a deeper turn, "for him to keep it a secret so well, even from you, then it must be important. And if it is personal to him, I may find use of it, especially if it might help our cause."

Their Lord then turned again to his director and veered close to his visor, "Venture into his mind, take it from him, quietly if you can."


	2. Chapter 2: Victim

**Chapter Summary:** Soundwave takes initiative action to crack the mystery in his own special way, but it doesn't seem to be going as planned.

**Review:** Hit me with everything you got, I have no idea how to be a writer. Also, I tried to make it longer a bit, am I still doing okay with the pacing since the first chapter?

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**Chapter Two**

**Victim**

The sleek seeker was due for a rude awakening.

His firewalls were strong, fortified, most likely hand crafted. Understandable, despite the SIC' notorious mouth he had many secrets to hide. The spy meant to be gentle, and not wake Starscream in the process, simply sneak in and ease this small quest into peace, but the firewalls were relentless and it was not long before the lithe body on the berth violently shuddered online, rage emanating from the seeker's eyes as he realized the raping of his mind. The Intelligence Officer knew he was not going to get anywhere without the commander restrained so he quickly retreated his drives, just barely escaping the barrage of monsterous antibodies sent through the circuits to attack the invader from the inside out. A very nasty kind of virus obviously altered by the seeker himself; it seemed Starscream had a better arsenal on his insides than out, making the Director's quest seem impossible. It makes one wonder just what sort of secrets the seeker had to hide.

"That was a foolish move, even for you. You could just ask. Or is forming an interrogative sentence not a part of your programming, MegPet?" The SIC played it disturbingly calm despite the immoral intrusion, without lashing out or instinctively covering his interface panel. Instead, he worked a snare with his glossa. Of course, the Intelligence Officer said nothing and merely stepped back far enough that the Commander could not do serious damage with his clawed servos. Noticing the tracing of the seeker's eyes over his body, if the Director had been anyone else he might have thought Starscream was 'checking him out', but he recognized the areas of his scanning were the signs of specific erosions due to many re-chargeless nights. The circumstance was not winning in Soundwave's favor and he turned to leave, intent on keeping the Commander further in the dark of his intentions there. Not that he thought he'd leave easy, and expected the sharp servos that reached out and gripped his arm.

The seeker simultaneously sat up and tried to gently pull the director closer, but Soundwave quickly jerked his limb out of the grip which didn't seem to offend the SIC.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he silkily stated with an exaggerated shrug, "Looking a little worse for wear, and obviously desperate. You don't have to leave, why not lie down with me Pet?" Something in his voice told Soundwave that the seeker was not actually seducing him, the tone was wrong, yet he was not being sincere either. Starscream still had not bothered to close his interface panel yet and the brave, sly face he was making proved what this display truly was. Starscream could intimidate in the most innovative ways. Switching the role of who was the victim was clever, but Soundwave caught on to his little game, not that he'd won it in the least though.

Turning for the door, if Starscream wasn't going to stop him by force he didn't see any reason why he shouldn't get out of there. The SIC said nothing until he reached for the door's keypad.

"Pleasant flux, Director Soundwave. If you can recharge." And with that, the seeker laid back down and turned over as if this was all casual to him.

Only when the door shut behind him did the director exhale his vents from the taught tension. 'He knew,' Soundwave thought. Knew that he had been sneaking into his berth room for the past couple nights. It was frustrating that this quest turned out to be far more complicated than he anticipated. His first try at hacking into Starscream's mind during a power-down cycle was surprisingly painful and it left him with a virus that kept him just uncomfortable enough that he could not sleep and his insides ached. He had tried various ports, but the seekers interface array seemed to have the weakest fortress of codes, most likely to enjoy a good frag or two. Going to Knockout didn't help; Starscream's little infectious bug proved to be too resilient for simple remedies and it currently had the doctor in a flurry to find a way to destroy the virus as nothing had prevailed against it for four days now and Soundwave's health was steadily declining.

Four nights Soundwave had visited Starscream, each time a little worse for wear. The director was able to hack into and look a little farther each time until tonight, tonight was a disaster. His systems were clunky, his pulse lagged, and had he been trapped inside any longer Starscream's monstrous antibodies would have killed him. He couldn't do this again; something new had to be done. Unfortunately with the virus, now even worse as it got every time he hacked the commander, Soundwave could hardly think straight and his thoughts began spewing illogical solutions. Laserbeak, whom was also infected through their symbiotic bond, sent him just as radical suggestions. But one thought of hers stood out,

"Snitch."

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Metal clanging thunder reverberated throughout the halls, the commander grew uneasy as he realized they were following his path and he turned around to confront the goliath approaching. Sure enough, Lord Megatron turned the corner and stormed towards him.

"Starscream! I'm sure you're well aware of my little pet project these last few nights."

"Ah yes, your 'pet' indeed." The seeker crossed his arms with a fake pout, "Didn't your sires' ever teach you that it's rude to molest mechs in their sleep?"

The Decepticon Lord inhaled deeply and then let it out before speaking further; if Starscream was not so important to nab a favor from right now the behemoth surely would have punched his face for joking about the matter.

"Whatever you put inside him, take it out." Megatron demanded, it was clear he was seething. When Starscream did not respond in any way, he added, "We need him."

"Alright, alright, I'll fix your naughty pet." Starscream gave up his sly façade, not that he wasn't chicken; he was not going to let their second most valuable component of the war die.

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"Wakey, wakey. You have a visitor." The deep melodious voice of Knockout gently rose the Director out of his light stasis. The aching had turned to agony to the point he could not move, which is why he was in Sickbay. What was a peaceful atmosphere turned sour the moment Starscream peered over into his field of vision and the director's systems groaned.

"Oh, don't be like that; I'm here to help you." The SIC laughed heartily as he motioned for Knockout to leave and made sure he had left before bargaining, "I'll give you the antiviron, but you have to tell me what you're after first."

The director's seemed to sigh as if not surprised by the bargain and his visor flickered static at first, but after trying harder a fuzzy image was produced. Seeing the cause of all this discomfort made the seeker's face change. Sad and angry? Afraid? A dreadful grimness in that lip-line? All of these things the spy saw, which made the expression unreadable as he couldn't tell what to make of it without further context. The next time the seeker spoke, it was not in his usual character, and instead the tone was very dead.

"Open a port for me." The seeker peered here and there at the Director having not found one himself to fiddle with. Soundwave's visor flickered as if hesitating, but then a few whirs and a click opened a seam in the right of his chassis where three small ports laid on his protoform.

"This won't hurt a bit." Starscream cooed as he dipped a servo between the seams of his midsection, once pulled out it was covered in a white fluid and he stuck the tip into one of the director's presented ports before turning to leave the room. Then there was nothing, and the director relaxed, hoping to catch a much needed slumber while his body healed. Something was fishy about the commander's last words though and just as he thought that...

Suddenly the director's body arched off the berth with a terrible metal-grinding wail.


End file.
